This Week’s Harvest
- Carrots
- Potatoes
- Celery
- Parsley
- Sweet Potatoes
- Purple Top Turnips
- Daikon Radish
- Head Lettuce
- Arugula
- Butternut Squash
- Sweet Onions
- Garlic
- Kale
- Spinach
Farm News
Some of our returning members may be asking themselves where are the Brussels Sprouts? I wish we could include them in our Thanksgiving week box but the crop has sadly been destroyed by aphids. And you may find some on your kale too, so please wash it thoroughly paying special attention to the underside of the leaf. It was a bad fall for aphids – a pest we either seem to have on our brassicas in droves or not at all. We had seen a few on our broccoli and cabbage but nothing we couldn’t pick around. Steadily they got worse and worse on the kale, but the sprouts never stood a chance- it turns out Brussels Sprouts are their favorite.
But there is plenty to celebrate about this box. This is the first time we have ever had celery this late in the season and been able to include in our Thanksgiving box. I accidentally started the celery 3 weeks late so I was worried for a time that we’d have any at all. It seemed so small for so long. But it did pull through and we had quite a bit left going into the first nights in the 20s. We have 2 bed wide pieces of remay and instead of covering both beds of celery we decided to cover one bed but with a double layer for extra protection. You can see from the picture that the uncovered bed is yellowing and the covered bed is a vibrant green. What you can’t see is that the unprotected beds’ stalks are also mushy from cellular break down and wouldn’t be enjoyable to eat! And before you get panicky and think we have wasted food out in the fields, the uncovered bed of celery got picked plenty earlier in the fall when we harvested outer stalks and left the centers to keep growing.
I was glad our experiment with covering worked and prolonged the celery’s life. I was also glad to learn that the celery doesn’t get damaged from the remay rubbing against it. The head lettuce , arugula, and spinach do get wind damage from the remay rubbing so if you see any damaged leaves, that’s likely what is is from and you can cut the damaged tips away (but we try to do that in the harvesting so hopefully you have no idea what I’m talking about!).
Enjoy your bounty and have a wonderful Thanksgiving!
Recipes
Left over Turkey Salad with veggies
Arugula and Butternut Squash Salad (use sweet onion in place of shallots)
Sweet Potato Cheese Cake with Gingersnap Crust
Caramelized onion and carrot stuffing
Coming up in 2 weeks (our best guess….) Collards, Cilantro, Golden Beets, Carrots, Sweet Potatoes, Kohlrabi, Garlic, Onions, Cabbage, Watermelon Radish, Spinach, Carrots, Potatoes